On the anniversary of Mgr Guérard des Lauriers' passing into eternity, let us read and appreciate M. Adrien Loubier's obituary of this giant figure of the post-conciliar epoch.
Msgr des Lauriers was a first rate theologian who even got his own commemorative edition of the Lateran's Divinitas journal. On this first page you can see his very impressive bibliography (to 1968):
Il Traguardo risurrezione nella dotrina di S. Paulo by P. Tarcisio Stramare, OSJ
Das Matthäus-Evangelium in den Wrken des Clemens von Alexandrien by P. Michael Mees OFM Conv.
Due Orazioni di Antipatro di Bostra Mons. Francesco Spadafora
La Passione di Criso e la Dialettica della Carita P. Alolfo Lippi CP
La Vierge Marie dans L'Economie du Salut M. L'Abbe Jacques Bur
Pio XII e I nuovi problemi della teologia P. Battista Mondin
Teismo e Ateismo una nuova opera di Cornelio Fabro Sac. Luigi Bogliolo SDB [Side note but his book, translated into english as God in Exile, is excellent]
La credibilita della rivelazione Sac. Vladimir Boublik
Nel 450 Anniversario della Riforma Commemorazione Mons. Brunero Gherardini
S. Paolo visto da Newman P. Giovanni Velocci CSSR
Esempi di Santita tra la gente de Campi Mons. Giuseppe Palazzini
Il dizionario dei Concili Mons. Ottorino Alberti
Tres Calas en torono al concepto de pastoral Alvaro Huerga, OP
Yes, it was just a commemorative edition, I do believe he wrote one or two more articles before the Ottaviani Intervention which lead to his dismissal from the Lateran. His book against atheism was published in Divinitas around the same time: https://archive.org/details/divinitas_1966-02_10_1
Thank you for this article about Msgr des Lauriers. One day, God willing, all will see what a truly holy man he was. I have always been drawn to know more about the Msgr which this article highlights the outstanding love and sacrifices he made with the utmost humility; always imitating Christ. May Monsignor des Lauriers rest in heavenly peace. Amen.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1931, he was a Thomist theologian in France and was noted for his involvement in preparatory work for the dogmatic definition of the Assumption of Mary, officially defined and proclaimed as infallible doctrine by Pope Pius XII in 1950.[2][3]
I wish the definition would have settled the matter as to whether Mary died or not. I know a majority of classical theologians believe she did, but some say she did not.
- Many works are missing from the commemorative bibliography of Divinitas. I think because it was "only" a ... commemorative bibliography. But it is also true that it is very difficult to compile a complete bibliography of Fr. Guérard, because every time you think you've completed it, a new piece of writing appears. Alongside his theological writings and theological battles, also against the nouvelle théologie (he took up arms against De Lubac, for example) and philosophy of science, of the most varied tones and angles (which could concern the theory of relativity, a technical question on Aristotle's physics or Galileo, a resounding critique of a work by Bertrand Russell, etc. [he wrote dozens of reviews in the main branches of scientific knowledge (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.)]), there are also many spiritual writings.
The commemorative bibliography then, for obvious reasons, lacks works from the last twenty years. It is well known that Fr. Guérard focused on the defense of the Mass and the crisis in the Church in this last period, but his spiritual writings continued. Straddling these two eras is the famous (unfortunately too little) Response to a "Letter to a Religious" by Simone Weil.
- Fr. Pietro Cantoni, a seminarian in Ecône and then a professor there, who had then moved to modernism, opponent of Fr. Guérard, appreciating the radical nature of his thought, once said that "a quarter of an hour of conversation with Father Guérard was worth more than a year's course with other teachers".
Msgr des Lauriers was a first rate theologian who even got his own commemorative edition of the Lateran's Divinitas journal. On this first page you can see his very impressive bibliography (to 1968):
https://archive.org/details/divinitas_1968-11_12_3/mode/2up
Wow! What else is in that issue?
I transcribed his bibliography: https://files.catbox.moe/iyg6vz.pdf
The rest of the articles are:
Il Traguardo risurrezione nella dotrina di S. Paulo by P. Tarcisio Stramare, OSJ
Das Matthäus-Evangelium in den Wrken des Clemens von Alexandrien by P. Michael Mees OFM Conv.
Due Orazioni di Antipatro di Bostra Mons. Francesco Spadafora
La Passione di Criso e la Dialettica della Carita P. Alolfo Lippi CP
La Vierge Marie dans L'Economie du Salut M. L'Abbe Jacques Bur
Pio XII e I nuovi problemi della teologia P. Battista Mondin
Teismo e Ateismo una nuova opera di Cornelio Fabro Sac. Luigi Bogliolo SDB [Side note but his book, translated into english as God in Exile, is excellent]
La credibilita della rivelazione Sac. Vladimir Boublik
Nel 450 Anniversario della Riforma Commemorazione Mons. Brunero Gherardini
S. Paolo visto da Newman P. Giovanni Velocci CSSR
Esempi di Santita tra la gente de Campi Mons. Giuseppe Palazzini
Il dizionario dei Concili Mons. Ottorino Alberti
Tres Calas en torono al concepto de pastoral Alvaro Huerga, OP
Reviews
Interesting. So a lot of those articles seem not to have to do with GDL, is that correct?
Yes, it was just a commemorative edition, I do believe he wrote one or two more articles before the Ottaviani Intervention which lead to his dismissal from the Lateran. His book against atheism was published in Divinitas around the same time: https://archive.org/details/divinitas_1966-02_10_1
Ironically, today the ICKSP runs Divinitas!
Thank you for this article about Msgr des Lauriers. One day, God willing, all will see what a truly holy man he was. I have always been drawn to know more about the Msgr which this article highlights the outstanding love and sacrifices he made with the utmost humility; always imitating Christ. May Monsignor des Lauriers rest in heavenly peace. Amen.
Ordained to the priesthood in 1931, he was a Thomist theologian in France and was noted for his involvement in preparatory work for the dogmatic definition of the Assumption of Mary, officially defined and proclaimed as infallible doctrine by Pope Pius XII in 1950.[2][3]
I wish the definition would have settled the matter as to whether Mary died or not. I know a majority of classical theologians believe she did, but some say she did not.
Are Mgr Guérard des Lauriers' mathematical works available in translation?
- Many works are missing from the commemorative bibliography of Divinitas. I think because it was "only" a ... commemorative bibliography. But it is also true that it is very difficult to compile a complete bibliography of Fr. Guérard, because every time you think you've completed it, a new piece of writing appears. Alongside his theological writings and theological battles, also against the nouvelle théologie (he took up arms against De Lubac, for example) and philosophy of science, of the most varied tones and angles (which could concern the theory of relativity, a technical question on Aristotle's physics or Galileo, a resounding critique of a work by Bertrand Russell, etc. [he wrote dozens of reviews in the main branches of scientific knowledge (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.)]), there are also many spiritual writings.
The commemorative bibliography then, for obvious reasons, lacks works from the last twenty years. It is well known that Fr. Guérard focused on the defense of the Mass and the crisis in the Church in this last period, but his spiritual writings continued. Straddling these two eras is the famous (unfortunately too little) Response to a "Letter to a Religious" by Simone Weil.
- Fr. Pietro Cantoni, a seminarian in Ecône and then a professor there, who had then moved to modernism, opponent of Fr. Guérard, appreciating the radical nature of his thought, once said that "a quarter of an hour of conversation with Father Guérard was worth more than a year's course with other teachers".